Judith herrin biography
Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire
"The scope and shape of Herrin's survey of Byzantine history and culture are impressive. She moves from the foundation of Constantinople to its fall before the Turks in a series of twenty-eight short chapters. This allows the curious or impatient reader to sample, according to taste, such delectable topics as Greek fire, eunuchs, icons, and the Towers of Trebizond . . ."—G.W. Bowersock, New York Review of Books
"Offering a brilliant study of the history of the Byzantine empire, Herrindraws [an] original portrait of a tradition-based yet dynamic empire that protected Christianity by checking the westward expansion of Islam. Drawing on letters, journals and other primary documents from both political figures and ordinary citizens, Herrin splendidly recreates an empire whose religious art, educational curriculum, tax and legal systems, and coronation rituals preserved the best of the empire's pre-Christian Greek past while at the same time passing along advances to the rest of the world. Herrin's history is hands-down the finest introduction to Byzantium and its continuing significance for world history."—Publishers Weekly
"The book is comprehensive, but the paragraphs are never dense and the prose retains throughout a lively quality."—J.W. Nesbitt, Choice
"The big, standard histories contain a wearying succession of emperors, patriarchs, battles, and siegesAt the other end of the scale there are lightweight travelogues, or books that pick out the juiciest moments (such as the final siege of ), leaving aside many things that are more important but less conducive to a good story. Judith Herrin has tried to find a middle ground between those two extremes, and has succeeded in a rather original way. Her book is a necklace of short chapters, each on a different topic, strung out in broadly chronological order. Some are devoted to places (Ravenna, Mount Athos and, of course, Constan
Judith Herrin
British archaeologist (born )
Judith HerrinFSA (; born ) is an English archaeologist, byzantinist, and historian of Late Antiquity. She was a professor of Late Antique and Byzantine studies and the Constantine Leventis Senior Research Fellow at King's College London (now emerita).
Early life and education
Herrin was educated at Bedales School, after which she studied history at Newnham College, Cambridge, and was awarded her Ph.D. in from the University of Birmingham. She trained in Paris, Athens and Munich.
Career
Herrin worked as an archaeologist with the British School at Athens and on the site of Kalenderhane Mosque in Istanbul as a Dumbarton Oaks fellow. Between and , she was Stanley J. Seeger Professor in Byzantine History, Princeton University. She was appointed Professor of Late Antique and Byzantine Studies at King's College London (KCL) in , and was head of the Center for Hellenic Studies at KCL. She retired from the post in , becoming Professor Emeritus. She was president of the International Congress of Byzantine Studies in
In , she won the Dr A.H. Heineken Prize for History.
Her book Ravenna: Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe was awarded the Duff Cooper Prize for It was shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize.
Critical reception
In , G.W. Bowersock said in a New York Review of Books (NYRB) article that The Formation of Christendom had since its publication in meant "many historians suddenly discovered that early medieval Christianity was far more complex than they had ever imagined". Her book Unrivalled Influence: Women and Empire in Byzantium with its "comparative perspective on Byzantium, European Christendom, and Islam reflects a lifetime of distinguished work on the Byzantine Empire."
Byzantium: Th After a long career teaching Byzantine and medieval history, notably at Princeton University and King’s College London, JH retired to pursue research, which is currently centred on the city of Ravenna and its anonymous Cosmographer. She is attached to the Wittgenstein Project Moving Byzantium, based at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, and maintains continuing membership of the Journal of Ecclesiastical History. the Advisory Publications Committee of the British School at Athens. Euro-Clio and the European Association of History Educators; Advisory Board of Symmeikta, Athens; Advisory Board of the Stavros Niarchos-Koç Center for Late Antique and Byzantine Studies, Koç University, Istanbul; Advisory Council of the Research Center for Byzantine Studies, Bogazici University, Istanbul. She was elected President of the Association Internationale des Etudes Byzantines, , and is the Founding Editor of Translated Texts for Byzantinists, series published by Liverpool University Press. Education: Graduate of Cambridge University; University of Birmingham, Ph.D. Office—Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, King's College London, Strand, London WC2R 2LS, England. E-mail—[email&#;protected]. Historian, educator, and writer. King's College, London, England, professor of late antique and Byzantine studies, director of the Centre for Hellenic Studies; previously Stanley J. Seeger Professor in Byzantine History at Princeton University, Princeton, NJ; member of governing board of Warburg Institute, London, ; University of London, governor of Camden School for Girls, Society of Antiquaries (fellow), British Academy Committee for the Prosopography of the Byzantine Empire. Golden Cross of Honour, president of the Hellenic Republic of Greece, (Editor, with Anthony Bryer) Iconoclasm: Papers Given at the Ninth Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, University of Birmingham, March , Centre for Byzantine Studies, University of Birmingham (Birmingham, England), (Editor, with others) Constantinople in the Early Eighth Century: The Parastaseis Syntomoi Chronikai: Introduction, Translation, and Commentary, E.J. Brill (Leiden, Netherlands), The Formation of Christendom,Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), (Selector and editor) A Medieval Miscellany, manuscript selection and book design by Linda and Michael Falter, introduction by Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (London, England), Women in Purple: Rulers of Medieval Byzantium, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), (Editor, with Margaret Mullett and Catherine Otten-Froux) Mosaic: Festschrift for A.H.S. Megaw, British School at Athens (London, England), (Editor, with others) Porphyrogenita: Essays on the History and Literature of Byzantium and the Latin East in Honour of Julian Chrysostomides, Ashgate (Burlington, VT), (Editor, with Emma Stafford) P Professor Judith Herrin
Selected publications
Expertise and public engagement
Herrin, Judith
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